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LGBT History Month – Day 21 – John Maynard Keynes

Day 21, and we take a closer look at John Maynard Keynes (1883 – 1946):

John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, CB, FBA, was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. He was born in 1883, a subject of Queen Victoria. He died in 1946, having lived through the Boer War, both World Wars, and a worldwide economic depression. He is best known for his proposal that when national economies suffer a downturn, governments should borrow and spend money to boost economic activity. Part of the proceeds of the resulting economic growth should then be used to repay the debt.

In 1921, Keynes fell in love with, and thereafter married, Lidia Vasilyevna Lopukhova, a Russian ballerina. They lived happily until his death in 1946. The marriage surprised his friends, as prior to meeting Lopukhova, Keynes had been exclusively involved with men. While studying at Eton and Cambridge, Keynes engaged in many affairs, which – presumably because ‘economist’ – he documented meticulously in diaries. He was perhaps fortunate to have been involved in an academic intellectual subculture – the so-called ‘Bloomsbury Set’ – which for its time was unusually at ease with same-sex relationships